It took 17 years for the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Introduced by Michelin to have a repeat champion. However it solely took one other yr for the super-competitive one-make sequence to have its second repeat winner.
With victories at Daytona, Mid-Ohio Sports activities Automobile Course and the Michelin Raceway Street Atlanta finale, Gresham Wagner earned his second MX-5 Cup championship in 2024, three years after claiming his first.
“It’s good to hitch a small membership like that,” mentioned Wagner shortly after the season wrapped up. “Greater than evaluating myself to what different folks have achieved, it was extra of a private achievement to have the ability to know that I might do it twice. It actually wasn’t a fluke the primary time I did it, nevertheless it all the time feels good to have the ability to come again and, particularly three years later, present that I can nonetheless do it. And to know that I’m nonetheless on the high my recreation, competing with all the brand new individuals who’ve come into the sequence since my first one, makes it particular.”
It was a kind of new folks, second-season driver Jeremy Fletcher, who Wagner needed to beat. However there was additionally a well-known rival in Jared Thomas, the opposite two-time champ – and to date, the one back-to-back title winner.
Ultimately, Wagner beat Thomas by solely 60 factors, with Fletcher 10 markers again in third place.
Whereas Thomas was touchdown his consecutive championships in 2022 and ’23, 2021 title-winner Wagner struggled with solely two wins throughout two seasons, ending third, then fifth within the standings. However his efficiency this yr is a narrative of development, together with slightly little bit of a change in perspective.
“I don’t assume my velocity was ever something that I questioned,” he mentioned. “Possibly among the choices I made on observe, among the elements of luck that got here into play, actually didn’t assist. However, yeah, I got here in with a little bit of a brand new method. It nonetheless wasn’t an ideal yr. I had a few incidents by means of the yr and slightly little bit of misfortune, however so does everybody else. So, I simply maximized what I might management and tried to reduce the stuff that I couldn’t.”
That new method, which Wagner says consists of an additional dose of endurance, was essential. Within the six seasons that he’s contested the sequence – and even within the two seasons between his championships – the Mazda MX-5 Cup and the profile of its rivals have advanced.
“Quite a lot of younger, gifted drivers have are available in, greater than ever,” Wagner mentioned. “The groups that which have are available in, and the groups which have stayed right here, have solely upped their recreation over time. And I feel the sector is tighter than ever, which results in much more variables, much more stuff occurring within the races, and much more alternatives the place your endurance or lack thereof can both provide help to or harm you.”
That elevated stage of competitiveness additionally means no pulling out a niche and working away like he typically did in his first championship season, and in years prior, too. Successful an MX-5 Cup race or championship now means combating in a pack of six, seven, and even 10 automobiles, just about each single lap of each single race.
“There’s simply no leeway for something anymore,” Wagner defined. “You’ll be able to’t get away with any errors, and you can also’t make the most of sure conditions as a lot as you used to. You’re all the time racing folks. It’s so compact, proper? All people’s able to doing the identical lap instances and attaining the identical outcomes. It fully adjustments how the races develop and the way you need to win these.”
However adapt, and win, Wagner did. And he now stands as certainly one of solely two folks to do it twice. Already in rarefied firm, can he make it three? Watch this house in 2025…
• All Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Introduced by Michelin races are streamed dwell on RACER.com and archived on The RACER Channel on YouTube. Up subsequent, get pleasure from dwell motion from the 2024 Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout, Nov. 11-12, when 12 aspiring racers will vie for a scholarship valued at $150,000 from Mazda to compete within the 2025 Mazda MX-5 Cup season. Plus, discover all the newest sequence information at mx-5cup.com.
